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School of Media, Arts and Design Department of Art and Design MA Art and Media Practice 2AMP7H1 Full Module Title Thinking practices: critical dialogues for contemporary art and media Short Module Title Thinking Practices Module Code 2AMP7H1 Module Level 7 Academic Weighting 20 credits Module Length 2 Semesters Module Leader Paula Roush Phone 07711483319 Email: paularoush@gmail.com Module Status Core Theory Pre-requisite None Co-requisite None Assessment: (80%) + (20%) (80%): Essay of 3000-4000 words + (20%): blog posts and comments Coursework final submission: Wed, April 4 2012 Blog: http://thinkingpractices.wordpress.com Snapshot of the module week by week... 2 week01 wednesday, 26 oct /Topic: art and theory (introduction)... 3 week02 Wednesday Nov 2 /Topic: art relationship with the document (at P3)... 4 Week 03 Wednesday Nov 9 /Topic: : art relationship with the document (cont)... 4 Week 04 Wednesday Nov 16 /Topic: Artist as theorist... 5 Week 05 Wednesday Nov 23 /Topic: art and globalisation... 5 Week 06 Wednesday Jan 11 /Topic: The feminist art theory project and gender /sexuality considerations in contemporary art theory... 6 Week 07 Wednesday Jan 18 /Topic: art, urban space and the public sphere... 7 Week 08 Wednesday Jan 25 /Topic: dialogical practices and relational aesthetics... 7 Week 09 Wednesday Feb 1 /Topic: postcolonial and diasporic studies... 8 Week 10 Wednesday Feb 8 /Topic: art as knowledge production and postproduction... 9 1

Week 11 Wednesday Feb 15 /Topic: artists working with archives/ the realm of historical methods... 9 Week 12 Wednesday Feb 22 /Topic: writing art theory seminar... 10 Summary of module content... 10 Module aims... 10 Learning outcomes... 11 Indicative syllabus content... 11 Teaching and Learning Methods... 11 Assessment... 12 General marking information... 12 Calendar of deadlines... 13 Specific writing guidelines... 14 Assessment Criteria... 15 Submission of Coursework... 15 Bibliography... 16 Snapshot of the module week by week 2011 THINKING PRACTICES MODULE TIMETABLE 2011 2012 Week 01 Wednesday Oct 26 art and theory (introduction to the module) Week 02 Wednesday Nov 2 art relationship with the document and documentary (at P3) Week 03 Wednesday Nov 9 art relationship with the document and documentary (seminar) Week 04 Wednesday Nov 16 Artist as theorist week 4 is the deadline to submit the research topic for your essay 2

Week 05 Wednesday Nov 23 Art and globalisation 2012 Week 06 Wednesday Jan 11 The feminist art theory project and gender /sexuality considerations in contemporary art theory Week 6 is the deadline for a summary and bibliography for your essay. Week 07 Wednesday Jan 18 Art, urban space and the public sphere Week 08 Wednesday Jan 25 Dialogical practices and relational aesthetics Week 09 Wednesday Feb 1 Week 10 Wednesday Feb 8 Postcolonial and diasporic studies Art as knowledge production and postproduction Week 11 Wednesday Feb 15 Artists working with archives/ the realm of historical methods Week 12 Wednesday Feb 22 Writing art theory seminar week01 wednesday, 26 oct /Topic: art and theory (introduction) studying and writing art theory Barrett, E. & Bolt, B. (2007) Practice as Research: Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry. NY: I.B.Tauris. Section available via google books Introduction (p 1-13) 3

Very useful : Appendix. Developing and writing creative arts practice research: a guide. week02 Wednesday Nov 2 /Topic: art relationship with the document (at P3) the document and the documentary ( at the P3 the conference) Schavemaker, M. & Rakier, M. 2008. Right about now: art & theory since the 1990s, Valiz Publishers: Amsterdam. Chapter: Documentary strategies, pp 94-115 Week 03 Wednesday Nov 9 /Topic: : art relationship with the document (cont) Analyse theoretical positions on the document in photography and visual arts Cramerotti, A., 2009. Aesthetic Journalism How to Inform Without Informing. London: Intellect. Full text available as electronic resource in Westminster catalogue [also available as pdf] pp 15-81. (Chapter 2: WHAT is Aesthetic Journalism?; Chapter 3: WHERE is Aesthetic Journalism? Chapter 5: HOW shall we Read Aesthetic Journalism? ) http://thinkingpractices.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/cramerotti- aesthetic- journalism.pdf Edwards, S., 2004. Photography Out of Conceptual Art. In: G. Perry and P. Wood eds. Themes in Contemporary Art. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp 137-180. http://thinkingpractices.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/edwards- photo- out- of- conceptual- art.pdf Steyerl, H.,2007. Documentary Uncertainty, A Prior 15, [online]available at: <http://www.aprior.org/apm15_steyerl_docu.htm> [Accessed 7 October 2010]. 4

Week 04 Wednesday Nov 16 /Topic: Artist as theorist Sullivan, G. (2005). Art Practice as Research: Inquiry in the Visual Arts (2005 edition). SAGE. Chapter 5- Artist as Theorist http://www.sagepub.co.uk/upm-data/11016_chapter5.pdf Part 3: Visual Arts Research Practices.6 Practice as Theory Reflection Activity: Artistic connections Additional samples available in google books Part 2: Theorizing Visual Arts Practice. 3. Explanation, understanding and beyondhttp://books.google.com/books?id=fb90two3v-wc&pg=pa212&dq=practicebased+research+art&lr=&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#ppa69,m1 http://books.google.com/books?id=fb90two3v-wc&pg=pa212&dq=practicebased+research+art&lr=&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#ppa207,m1 http://books.google.com/books?id=fb90two3v-wc&pg=pa212&dq=practicebased+research+art&lr=&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#ppa216,m1 week 4 is the deadline to submit the research topic for your essay Week 05 Wednesday Nov 23 /Topic: art and globalisation theorising globalization in the artworld and the globalised artwork Ratnam, N., 2004. Art and Globalisation. In: G. Perry and P. Wood eds. Themes in Contemporary Art. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp 276-313. 5

Biemann, U., 2008. Writing Video Writing the World: Videogeographies as Cognitive Medium. TRANSIT, 4(1), [online]available at: <http://german.berkeley.edu:8002/transit/2008/articles/biemannwriting.htm> [Accessed 7 October 2010]. Tate Modern, 2005. Wood, P., Globalisation & Art - A Brief History. Podcast, [podcast] March 2005. Available at <http://channel.tate.org.uk/#media:/media/36838610001/26627135001&list:/media/3683861000 1&context:/channel/playlists>[Accessed 7 October 2010]. Roush, P., 2008, Spaces, visibilities and transcultural flows: diasporic strategies in the local worlds. Lagos: Mundos Locais Local Worlds. http://www.msdm.org.uk/index.php?/writing/diasporic-strategies Download the catalogue pdf http://www.msdm.org.uk/archive/mundos-locais-local-worlds-catalogue.pdf or read the essay at scribd http://www.scribd.com/doc/16436028/space-visibilities-and-transcultural-flows-diasporic- Strategies-in-Local-Worlds +++++++++++++++++++++++ 2012 Week 06 Wednesday Jan 11 /Topic: The feminist art theory project and gender /sexuality considerations in contemporary art theory Jones, A., ed., 2010. The Feminism and Visual Culture Reader. New York: Routledge, pp 45-48. 6

Berger, J., 1972. Ways of seeing. London: The British Broadcasting Corporation and Penguin Books, pp. 45-54, 62-64. [available in youtube] WAYS OF SEEING (episode two - female nude) 1/4 WAYS OF SEEING (episode two - female nude) 2/4 Sturken, M and Cartwright, L., 2008. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 93-139. [available in pdf] Mulvey, L., 1975. Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. Screen, 16(3), pp. 6-18. [online] Available at [Accessed 7 October 2010]: https://wiki.brown.edu/confluence/display/marktribe/visual+pleasure+and+narrative+cinema Week 6 is the deadline for a summary and bibliography for your essay. This is a critical date since it is important for you to establish a specific direction and focus for your essay. In this summary you will articulate your thesis for your specific topic. Week 07 Wednesday Jan 18 /Topic: art, urban space and the public sphere Papastergiadis, N., 2010, Spatial Aesthetics, Art, Place, and the Everyday. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. Doherty, C., ed., 2004. Contemporary Art from Studio to Situation. London: Black Dog Publishing. Week 08 Wednesday Jan 25 /Topic: dialogical practices and relational aesthetics Grant, K., 2005. Conversation Pieces: The Role of Dialogue in Socially Engaged Art. In Z. Kocur and S. Leung, eds. Theory in Contemporary Art Since 1985. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. _-_. 7

Foster, H., 1996. The return of the real: the avant-garde at the end of the century. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 171-205. [also available as pdf] Benjamin, W., 1936. The author as producer. New Left Review, 1/62 (1970). http://tinyurl.com/yzems3u Bourriaud, N., 2002. Relational aesthetics. Paris: Presses du réel, Week 09 Wednesday Feb 1 /Topic: postcolonial and diasporic studies Mercer, K., ed. 2008. Exiles, Diasporas & Strangers. London and Cambridge: Iniva and the MIT Press. [Extracts available as pdfs] Bhabha, H., 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, pp.139-170. [online]available at: <http://prelectur.stanford.edu/lecturers/bhabha/dissemination.html>[accessed 7 October 2010]. THE TIME OF THE NATION, From "DissemiNation: Time, narrative and the margins of the modern nation." Mercer, K. and Bailey, D.A., eds, 1995. Mirage: Enigmas of Race, Difference and Desire. London, London: ICA and the Institute of International Visual Arts. foreword, Gilane Tawadros, Emma Dexter 1995. [Extracts available as pdfs] Mosquera, G., 1992. The Marco Polo syndrome: Some problems around art and eurocentrism. Third Text, 21, pp. 35 41. 8

Maharaj, S., 1994. Perfidious Fidelity: The Untranslatability of the Other. In J. Fisher ed. Global Visions: Towards a New Internationalism in the Visual Arts. London: Kala Press and the Institute of International Visual Arts, pp. 28-35. Week 10 Wednesday Feb 8 /Topic: art as knowledge production and postproduction art practice as the production of knowledge and theories of remix and postproduction Graeme Sullivan, 2006, Artefacts as evidence within changing contexts. Working Papers in Art and Design 4. Available online http://sitem.herts.ac.uk/artdes_research/papers/wpades/vol4/gsfull.html Bourriaud, N., 2002, Postproduction: Culture as Screenplay: How Art Reprograms the World. New York: Lukas & Sternberg, Šuvaković, M. 2008. Epistemology of Art: Critical design for procedures and platforms of contemporary art education. Belgrade: TkH & PAF. http://www.tkh-generator.net/files/casopis/!!!%20epistemologija%20mala.pdf Week 11 Wednesday Feb 15 /Topic: artists working with archives/ the realm of historical methods Desai, D. and Hamlin, J., 2009. Artists in the realm of Historical methods: The Sound, Smell, and Taste of History. In: D. Desai and J. Hamlin Eds History as Art, Art as History. New York: Routledge, pp 47-66. [download pdf here:desai-artists_in_the_realm_of_historical_methods 9

Uriel Orlow, Latent Archives, Roving Lens in Ghosting: The Role of the Archive within Contemporary Artists Film and Video, ed. Jane Connarty and Josephine Lanyon (Bristol: Picture This Moving Image, 2006) ISBN 0-9539872-8-0. (online)available from: Slash/seconds http://www.slashseconds.org/issues/002/004/articles/uorlow3/index.php Schröter, J, Archive Post/photographic. (online)available from: Medien Kuntz Net. Topic: Photo/Byte http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/photo_byte/archive_post_photographic http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/themes/photo_byte/archive_post_photographic/print/ [print version] Week 12 Wednesday Feb 22 /Topic: writing art theory seminar Summary of module content The Thinking Practices module provides a forum to enable you to encounter and debate a range of theoretical and cultural issues, and to provide you with grounding in key ideas relating to contemporary art and media practice. These theories intersect in various ways with current art and media practices. Artists have drawn directly on them either to explore its ideas visually or to critique them theoretically or politically. We will use these theories as a toolkit for the construction and production of a body of theoretical work fit to understand today s technological, theoretical, and artistic developments in the art world. Module aims The module is designed to deepen your understanding of the theoretical and critical contexts for art and media practice: the seminars are participatory and aim - To engage you, through reading and writing, with theoretical approaches to art, originating from a wide field of critical thinking. - to present diverse theoretical frameworks within a debate that elucidates their relevance to the production and interpretation of art, including semiotic approaches, theories of spectatorship 10

and the gaze (psychoanalytical approaches) in the visual field, spatial aesthetics, photographic theory, postcolonial theories, theories of performativity, gender and embodied subjectivity, theories of globalization, discursive approaches and theories of art practice as research. Learning outcomes At the end of the module you should: be familiar with debates regarding the emerging area of art practices as research identify, research and present a paper on a subject informed by the module themes Participate in the weekly debate via the module s blog, posting and commenting in response to the etivities In addition, you should be able to: relate theoretical formulations to your own practice apply theories underpinning the shifting roles of the artist and the audience in art and media practices show awareness of a range of theoretical positions to address cross-cultural practices in art and media research demonstrate knowledge of a range of theoretical concepts about the role of art and media in the public domain. Indicative syllabus content Please refer to: Snapshot of the module week by week Teaching and Learning Methods The course is structured according to a blended approach to teaching and learning that combines opportunities for individual reflection posted to the module s blog and face to face encounters where we practice seminar format. The class will run in a seminar format, focusing each week on a particular set of theoretical approaches with application to art practice. Everyone is requested to participate. This is accomplished through preparation for the seminar, reading the assigned texts and case studies, writing a summary/ reflection, posting it to the blog and engaging through dialogue with the seminar facilitator and the other participants. For this to be successful all students will need to come to class prepared and having given thoughtful consideration to the assignments. 11

Each week we will overview and debate a body of theories significant for contemporary art practice to build students' familiarity with critical visual studies and its writings, revisiting influential pieces of art writing. Weekly discussions will be centred around students contributions to the course blog http://thinkingpractices.wordpress.com For a discussion on the use of blogs in the classroom, one of the best sources is Will Richardson s Blogs, wikis, podcasts and other powerful web tools for classrooms. In chapter two weblogs: pedagogy and practice under the heading the pedagogy of weblogs, the author outlines reasons for the inclusion of blogging in the classroom toolbox. 1- reaching out a potential audience: the coursework becomes part of a wider body of knowledge available in the internet 2-collaboration with others outside the classroom: connecting teachers and students with others 3-archival features: knowledge produced by teachers and students is organised and searchable 4-supports different learning styles: allowing people that are less inclined to speak in class to express themselves through written reflection 5-helps develop expertise in particular topics: by creating databases on themes that can be built on over time 6-can teach new literacies: such as research, organisation and synthesis of ideas Assessment General marking information 20% of your grade will be based on your responses in the blog and class participation. For each week of texts and case studies you have been asked to read, there will be an etivity resulting in a blog post. In the related TP blog, I will post an etivity weekly (you can find some examples already in the weekly snapshot programme). You will then respond to the questions or topics associated with this. These responses will be the basis of our class discussions. It is therefore critical that you keep up with these and be prepared to respond. Use your blog posts as a place to raise questions about the material covered in the assignments and a place to raise different perspectives. The other 80% of your grade will be based on an approximately 3000-4000 words essay. This will be on a topic of your own choice that you will develop in consultation with me. 12

Calendar of deadlines To help you work on this essay over the course of the whole 12 weeks, and not just in the week before the paper is due, there is a calendar of deadlines: Week 04 Select Topic: email me before this date to suggest potential topics. By this date, we should have settled on a single topic. Week 06 Submit to me an abstract and bibliography. This is a critical date since it is important for you to establish a specific direction and focus for your essay. In this abstract you will articulate your thesis for your specific topic. Weeks 10/ 11 Student Presentations of the research papers (work in progress). Deadline for turning in essay Wednesday 4th of April at 5pm. In summary, the marking of the module includes individual participation in class seminars via blog posting and weekly presentations and debates based on these (20% of your final mark) a final essay that allows you to apply what has been learned and/or expand on materials and sources studied within the context of the web and the course collaborative blog site. (80% of your final mark) thus, the final marking will be based on your contributions to the collaborative blog and your participation in the weekly seminars (20%) and the final essay in the form of an essay that is to be posted as well (80%). 13

Specific writing guidelines The weekly blog posts Each week, as an assignment related to the weekly readings, you are requested an etivity, i.e., to create a post in the TP s blog, and respond to other students posts. These will be related to the weekly debate and presentations. 1.1. Posting (10%.) You will be marked on the contents (how much and how well you reflect on the topic of the etivity) of your posts. The length of the posts may vary but should follow the recommended in the etivity and be done within the timeline. Each week the module leader (paula) will review the posting with a summary of that week s etivity. 1.2. Comments to classmates' posts: 10%. The last part of each etivity involves reading your classmates posts and respond. We will consider both the number of comments (i.e. if you responded during each etivity as requested) as well as the quality of your comments. These should provoke further reflection on the part of the blogger, not just show agreement. The final essay Choose from the theoretical approaches studied in the seminars, and apply it to one of the topics researched in the seminars for an extended essay. Use the advantages of the blog and the internet hyperlinked reading and writing. The aim is to explore the blog and the internet environment as a space to research, read and write. (see the blog post on connected writing) Develop your discursive argument and your own interpretive framework, linking to other sources and a "bibliography" of references to supporting materials in any medium (text, image, video, sound). Word count: the equivalent of 3,000-4,000 words writing, and include a fully developed set of references and links to relevant sources. 14

General outline of the essay: Introduction (establish your topic and approach, your sources and methodologies) Main body of the essay (several paragraphs that develop the main argument) Bibliography or Works Consulted (all the relevant materials you have considered or want to reference to support your essay) including a list of Web sources and links Reference your sources following the recommended referencing system (Harvard). Use this online guide for a quick overview Referencing guides: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm http://thinkingpractices.wordpress.com/harvard-referencing-guide/ Assessment Criteria Assessment will be based on: i) the appropriateness and depth of the research ii) your understanding of the subject and selection of information iii) your level of understanding of theoretical and historical debates iv) your capacity to construct a coherent and formal presentation of ideas v) for the essay, your use of the recommended referencing system (Harvard) vi) for the blog, your use of links to online references acknowledging the source Submission of Coursework A CD (2 copies) with coursework must be submitted to the Graduate Office. The submission date is the Wednesday 4th of April at 5pm.. The CD must contain: -your essay -your blog posts (copied and pasted into a single word document) 15

The Module Leader will monitor the blog on a continuing basis and your Project Supervisor or Course Leader will also assess after final coursework submission. Bibliography Check the week snapshot section to see it organized week by week. Additional resources are always being added to the module s blog. 16